Any information can be placed in the sidebar to help your website visitors navigate your site.Instructions for Course Facilitators
Philosophy
There are two models of storytelling in this course, one from Bruce Graham, (Becoming a Participant in God’s Story
Among the Nations), and one from Tom Steffan. It is important to both give the tools of indcutive Bible Study and storying, then work with the students to the point where they are proactively working on storying in the community and with a small group. They will discover their own style.
There are four main sources of the flow of content.
Rob Bellingham's work on a Biblical Theology of Development underlies the backwards and forwards in each session from scriptural items to developmental theories and models. It is not in-depth, but introductory, as these issues will be covered in depth in subsequent courses. The critical issue is that the students understand how such models and theories may be both derived and/or critiqued from the scriptures, thus basing their whole mindset about transformation from a Biblical mindset.
Bill Dyrness' biblical Theology of Development gores deeper into the sciptures, and the readings supplement Rob's work. Viv Grigg's materials on specific issues drawing from multiple sources such as Hanks, Tamez, traditional Catholic studies of the poor, Guitierrez and liberation theoolgy exegesis(though not conclusions) as well as his own reflections at tech center of evangelical Christian engagement in social justice complement this. Art Glasser's two decades development of a Biblical theology of the Kingdom takes these ideas to a yet deeper level.
But theology is based on a knowledge of the scriptures. This course presumes that the students' knowledge is piecemeal and marginal. Some have come from degrees in other fields. Some have studied under theologians who tend to discuss the latest theories of exegesis and form criticisms but rarely give an excitement to a simple mastery of the Biblical progressions. SOme have been preachers but not trained in the scriptural themes, only in occasional passages. In Bruce Graham's unique story-telling approach he has in a gifted manner identified diagrammatically key themes. And then his work enables facilitation of students in discovering and discussing those themes. This means this material ought not be taught in a teacher telling students manner, but classroom facilitation given. Clearly we are picking some salient parts of Bruce materials, but hopefully sufficient that students can master the technique and be excited to grasp the breadth of his work and continue to use it for evangelism.
Action
However , while this course lays some significant theoretical frameworks, it seeks to do so through action as well as content. Each student needs to enter into their community and engage people in the community with these stories. this wont happen without personal encouragement, motivation and helpful structure. Not all will find immediate entrance.
You are wise to work at two levels. First simple entrance to relationships Intel community. Second having the students (perhaps with their churchplanting leader) form a small inductive Bible Study group and utilize Bruce Graham's approach.
Readings
For each hour of classroom content, it is normative to expect 2 hours of study, writing, research, action. In this course there is more reading. Most grad courses include 4 or 5 books t read in that time. We are suggesting about 800 pages per course. Much is on the website, but should be supplemented by working completely through Glasser and Dyrness.